Applications

If your device hasn't gotten the YouTube v5 update today yet, and you're just itching to see the new navigation and UI, and experience the in-app multitasking first hand, we have your fix down below. Simply flash this verified APK to your phone or tablet, and your YouTube app will suddenly look better than ever before.

Google has started rolling out a staged YouTube for Android update, and it's probably the biggest redesign the app has seen yet. We've gotten a hold of the APK with exact version 5.0.21 (the previous version is 4.5.17), and after playing with it for about 30 minutes so far, I can definitively say that it's hugely improved.

Alarm clock apps are not usually described as lovely, but this one is. Scratch that – Timely is devastatingly beautiful. The numbers morph gracefully from one to the next, there are a ton of themes, and the subtle movement in the background looks great. It's not just a pretty face, though. Timely has some really useful features.

Timely uses an interesting tap-and-drag gesture to set alarm times. If you prefer to use Google Now voice input, Timely works with that too.

A week or two after Chromecast hit the streets, we started to see all kinds of unofficial applications for Google's HDMI streamer, many of which came from CyanogenMod Team member and ClockworkMod creator Koushik "Koush" Dutta. Now he's worked around the developer whitelist for Chromecast, allowing his app to be used on any Android device and with any Chromecast. He's calling it AirCast, and it's available for a test download now.

Mashable is sort of the middle ground for breaking stories and Internet memes: it includes metrics so that the most popular stuff gets to the top, but the formatting and content are friendly enough to appeal to a wider group of users than, say, Reddit. Now there's an official app available in the Play Store. Samsung seems to have secured an exclusive for the launch.

At the moment the description says that you'll need a Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, or any of the new Galaxy Tab 3 models to download and use the app.

Our readers already know about CyanogenMod, as it's only the most popular Android ROM out there, so I won't waste time with an introduction. Many also already use CyanogenROM Downloader to get their hands on the latest versions, even though it's not an official updater. The app's already awesome, but its author sent out a tease a few days ago implying that it could be even better - that it could automatically update your ROM to the latest version overnight, do a backup beforehand, and install your preferred custom kernel without a single touch.

Do you find you can't get things done? If you are king of the procrastinators, ruling over a realm of incomplete tasks, HabitRPG might be for you. This app is basically a to-do list manager, but it frames everything as a quest in your own personal RPG.

If you finish something successfully, you get experience and gold. Why would you need gold? To get better weapons and armor, obviously.

The Geekbench benchmarking program is a staple on PCs, thanks to quick and varied tests for multiple hardware systems and an impressive database of results. The Geekbench 2 test has been gaining steam on Android as well - we've used it in a few reviews and comparisons. Version 3 has been released as a stand-alone app, but the small list of improvements hardly seems to justify it. It's a good thing that it only costs a dollar.

If you're still in the market for a Google Reader alternative that's simple, clean, and well integrated with Android's UI, take a moment to check out Press. This straightforward, perhaps traditional, RSS reader received an update today that gave the already attractive app a touch-up, a redesigned Settings screen, a handful of new features, and a slew of general bug fixes and improvements.

Press, which already syncs with Feedly, Feed Wrangler, and Feedbin, has gained support for Fever, a service which helps readers pick what feeds to focus on by displaying which stories are "hot." The app has long supported offline reading, but now images are cached offline as well.